Lyons: Thousands in county refunds go to wrong people

A plumber installs a backflow preventer in South Venice in 1999. Refunds owed to thousands of customers who were billed for backflow preventor inspections that never took place ended up going to the wrong people, County Administrator Randall Reid says.

Published: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 6:15 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 6:15 p.m.

The months-long scandal over fees wrongly charged to thousands of Sarasota County utility customers for plumbing inspections that were never done just got worse.

Far worse.

Just when the problem was supposed to be corrected — in part with thousands of refunds and credits as well as software fixes — County Administrator Randall Reid says he just learned that thousands of the refunds and credits probably didn't go to the customers who were owed them.

“Many of the people, if not most of the people who received credit and refund notices, are the wrong people,” Reid said Wednesday afternoon.

Reid announced that he is calling in outside investigators to find out why things again went so wrong, and he has contacted Clerk of Court Karen Rushing in case she wants to audit the department.

“I have lost confidence in what I'm being told” by the utility department, Reid told the Herald-Tribune.

He said his concerns were about competence, but “it could be an issue of integrity,” too.

News that the fix was going wrong was too slow to get to him, Reid said.

The utility department spent months investigating and correcting the problem of bills sent for required annual inspections of backflow devices. For several years, many billed customers, usually unaware if the inspections were done or not, were paying for nothing.

Backflow preventers are supposed to keep water from flowing backward from homes — and wells and pools and ponds — and into the county's water pipes. Such incidents are exceedingly rare, but in theory there could be pollutants carried to taps in homes and businesses if the uninspected devices become faulty.

Tracking down who needed inspections and who would get a credit or refund was a slow process but seemed to be all but over.

Until now.

“Reid has directed Assistant County Administrator Mark Cunningham to work with a third party to investigate how approximately 3,400 backflow-preventer utility customers may have been given a credit or refund mistakenly,” according to statement from Sarasota County.

That means, of course, that many who should get credits — typically about $120 if the inspections went undone for four years — did not get them.

Reid said he told the Herald-Tribune about this discovery and planned investigation first, because of a series of my columns that exposed the initial bad billing. Those columns began late last year.

The utility department first portrayed the problem as a mistake probably involving just a few customers. But more questions and internal investigation kept revealing more unjustified bills.

The explanation given involved thousands of homes with backflow devices that were listed in county billing records but somehow not — or not noticed — in a database used to assign inspectors.

The department said then it was a software issue that would soon be corrected.

But after the last round of credits and refunds were assigned in February and March, the wheels came off again, it seems. Utilities staff “became aware of a possible problem with the credit or refund process on April 11, but did not inform Sarasota County administration officials until today,” the county's statement said.

“I want to get to the bottom of this problem,” Reid said. “I am initiating an independent investigation into both the backflow preventer program and the staff response to this issue because at this point I don't have a high level of confidence that either have been handled properly.”

It is hard to comprehend a program having so many errors, if they really are just errors.

On the other hand, the water is still flowing. Whether it always flows in the right direction, who knows?

<p>The months-long scandal over fees wrongly charged to thousands of Sarasota County utility customers for plumbing inspections that were never done just got worse.</p><p>Far worse.</p><p>Just when the problem was supposed to be corrected — in part with thousands of refunds and credits as well as software fixes — County Administrator Randall Reid says he just learned that thousands of the refunds and credits probably didn't go to the customers who were owed them.</p><p>“Many of the people, if not most of the people who received credit and refund notices, are the wrong people,” Reid said Wednesday afternoon.</p><p>Reid announced that he is calling in outside investigators to find out why things again went so wrong, and he has contacted Clerk of Court Karen Rushing in case she wants to audit the department.</p><p>“I have lost confidence in what I'm being told” by the utility department, Reid told the Herald-Tribune.</p><p>He said his concerns were about competence, but “it could be an issue of integrity,” too. </p><p>News that the fix was going wrong was too slow to get to him, Reid said.</p><p>The utility department spent months investigating and correcting the problem of bills sent for required annual inspections of backflow devices. For several years, many billed customers, usually unaware if the inspections were done or not, were paying for nothing.</p><p>Backflow preventers are supposed to keep water from flowing backward from homes — and wells and pools and ponds — and into the county's water pipes. Such incidents are exceedingly rare, but in theory there could be pollutants carried to taps in homes and businesses if the uninspected devices become faulty.</p><p>Tracking down who needed inspections and who would get a credit or refund was a slow process but seemed to be all but over.</p><p>Until now.</p><p>“Reid has directed Assistant County Administrator Mark Cunningham to work with a third party to investigate how approximately 3,400 backflow-preventer utility customers may have been given a credit or refund mistakenly,” according to statement from Sarasota County.</p><p>That means, of course, that many who should get credits — typically about $120 if the inspections went undone for four years — did not get them.</p><p>Reid said he told the Herald-Tribune about this discovery and planned investigation first, because of a series of my columns that exposed the initial bad billing. Those columns began late last year.</p><p>The utility department first portrayed the problem as a mistake probably involving just a few customers. But more questions and internal investigation kept revealing more unjustified bills.</p><p>The explanation given involved thousands of homes with backflow devices that were listed in county billing records but somehow not — or not noticed — in a database used to assign inspectors.</p><p>The department said then it was a software issue that would soon be corrected.</p><p>But after the last round of credits and refunds were assigned in February and March, the wheels came off again, it seems. Utilities staff “became aware of a possible problem with the credit or refund process on April 11, but did not inform Sarasota County administration officials until today,” the county's statement said.</p><p>“I want to get to the bottom of this problem,” Reid said. “I am initiating an independent investigation into both the backflow preventer program and the staff response to this issue because at this point I don't have a high level of confidence that either have been handled properly.”</p><p>It is hard to comprehend a program having so many errors, if they really are just errors.</p><p>On the other hand, the water is still flowing. Whether it always flows in the right direction, who knows?</p>